It is conventional to provide forkliftable workpiece supporting racks of the kind having a base fitted with a superstructure that is especially equipped to provide support for workpieces during various stages of manufacture or treatment of such workpieces. Conventionally, the superstructure is secured to and upstands from a base having two pairs of tubular limbs which enable the base and whatever is supported thereon to be engaged and lifted by a forklift truck. The tubular limbs conventionally are so arranged that the forks of a forklift truck may enter the base from any one of four different directions.
In the manufacture heretofore of rack bases of the kind referred to it has been customary to roll or bend a steel sheet into a four-sided tube which is welded to produce a hollow limb. A plurality of such limbs then are cut to produce shorter tubes. Some of the tubes then are cut to form openings therein, and the several tubes then are welded to one another so that a base is formed having two pairs of intersecting tubes, the tubes of each pair forming tunnels and being spaced from one another a distance sufficient to accommodate easily the forks of a forklift truck.
The conventional manner of forming such rack bases is extremely labor intensive and slow because of the many operations that must be performed to produce an acceptable base. Consequently, the cost of racks utilizing bases formed in the conventional manner is expensive.
An object of the present invention is to provide a construction for a rack base which is as strong as, or stronger, than bases produced in the conventional manner, and which overcomes the disadvantages of the known construction.